Found 4 ratings (with comment) on this game

Short review:
It ticks all the early 1980s pinball pleasure boxes, yet it gets overlooked by the shallow people because it says 'Gottlieb' and 'soccer'.

Long review:
First, let me tell you how happy I am that I can finally write this review. My Striker was all but dead and buried when I got it. It was probably used to resurrect a more popular Gottlieb title, in a time when oddball titles like this one just weren't appreciated. It was missing not only its complete board set, but also the full transformer panel in the cabinet, which was quite the endeavour to reproduce. Luckily, all the game specific stuff was there and intact.

I bought Striker because I heard good stories and was fascinated by its layout. Having finally got it working, I'm writing this review about a working, but unshopped machine. I'll probably review my review once the machine is playing like new again.

About that layout. Striker really plays like no other game. Not even Rocky comes close. The narrow playing areas make for deceivingly fast and frantic gameplay. Not an easy game by any means. The long orbit shots to the goal are very satisfying to go for when the spinners are lit. A weak point in the game layout is the inability to directly shoot for the multiplier area with the small flippers. The ball kind of just falls into it if you're lucky.

Apart from that, Sriker is a thinking man's game. You want to score as many goals as possible, but setting them up can be quite a challenge. And once you've scored them, you better have that multiplier up so they're actually worth something! The Pascal board in mine offers an optional rule change that can make the multiplier worth up to 100k per goal instead of 15k max. This makes going for goals and multipliers a very viable strategy. The opportunity to pass the ball (the football, not the pinball) to the other side of the playfield combined with the defender logic is a stroke of genius. The Shootout Time you get after your last ball is a nice touch, reminiscent of other games from the same timeframe.

Sounds are quite cool for the era. The background noise during gameplay resembles that of a stadium with a whistle from the crowd every now and then. When you've scored a goal, the crowd roars. At the start of the game, it plays the first verse of the US, German or French national anthem, depending on the rom you've got installed. After the final whistle, it plays the last verse. All of this accompanied by that cute classic synthesized Gottlieb voice we love so much on games like Black Hole.

Backglass art is a weak point. The game logos on this vintage of Gottliebs are amazing, but the image below, of the main guy twice, is just awkward. Playfield artwork is alright and follows the theme. Cabinet art is actually quite nice and original: the bright white base color is a welcome change in a dark early 1980s line up.

In all, Striker is very fun. It's accompanied by my Centaur II and definitely holds its own against it. A solid and very original effort by Gottlieb, a company that was seriously struggling at the time. A game that would definitely be more popular if more had been made. I blame the time frame and the theme (which I personally love).

Play it if you see it. You'll be pleasantly surprised. A hidden gem of pure early 1980s pinball goodness.

This game is frankly as difficult a shooter as is possible. Lots of skill shots and you have to be great at flipper passing skills. It has the draw of one more game but after it beats you up game after game, well maybe tomorrow. Just a brilliant game.

Played this one a lot as a kid. Its pretty rare in the US so not many people have had a chance to play it.
The six flippers makes the game unique but plays well into the soccer theme. The divided playfield makes the game a challenge to score goals without the defense stopping you. Its important to learn to move the ball between the two sides in order to score.

Speech is good for an early 80s game.

Its a simple rule set by today's standards and still fun to play considering the era. For an early 80s machine it's a pretty involved ruleset and you have to think and pass to score goals.

Each goal adds extra end-of-ball bonus and adds 5 seconds of 'shootout' time after your last ball. So goals is an important part of scoring well.

I played this as a kid so I'm a little biased, but Striker still gets as much play as anything else in my collection.

With four flippers and sort of a split play field this pin is a little hard to describe. There are ways to move the ball from one side to the other side; This is a skill you need to master. There are targets you need to hit that will be on the side of the play field your are not on.

There are not many of these around. I was fortunate to get to play one.

I will like to own one.